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Home » Podcast » Episode 17 Dried Prunes

Published: Oct 19, 2022 by Kathy · This post may contain affiliate links

Episode 17 Dried Prunes

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Dried fruit in a glass jar.

In episode 17, Kathy discusses how to make dried prunes. She shares what type of plum makes the best dried prune and the process for drying the plums.

A jar with prunes in the jar.
Table of Contents
Play the episode
Recipes
In this episode you'll learn:
Equipment
Where to listen to the podcast
Transcript

Play the episode

Recipes

Find the complete recipe for How to Make Dried Plums

Recipes mentioned in this podcast:

  • Juicing Plums
  • Plum Jam
  • Plum Galette
  • How to Can Peaches

In this episode you'll learn:

  • What type of plum is perfect for drying
  • The process for drying plums
  • How to store your dried prunes

Equipment

  • Dehydrator

Where to listen to the podcast

Listen to this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Podcast, or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.

If you love this podcast, I’d love to hear about it! Leave a comment below and hop over and leave a comment on Instagram @preservingthepantry!

Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Pantry. Today I am pulling the dehydrator back out, and we are drying plums, otherwise known as prunes.

Now, hold on there a minute. Did I just hear a Ewww? No, no, no! These prunes are delicious. To me they don't resemble anything at all like the ones you find in the store, those are a little bit on the soft and mushy side, and these homemade dried prunes are dry, but pliable and have a bit of tartness to them.

They're really a delicious snack, so you need to try them. And then you can decide if you like them.

The type of plum that we're going to use to make these prunes are an Italian plum. They are a small plum that are sort of an oblong shape, almost like an egg, and are a bluish purple. The pit is a freestone.

Remember we talked about freestones when we talked about our peaches? The pit just comes right out. It's not clinging to the flesh. The flesh is juicy, but not dripping with juice, and the flesh is nice and firm. Those are ideal for making these prunes.

We have another tree that is a different type of a plum tree. They're red, they're round a little bit larger and extremely juicy, and when we pick them, the juice is just dripping off those plums and especially when you take a bite out of them. We use those plums for making jam or juice or baking, but they don't make great dried plums. There's just too much moisture.

Once you have your plums, all you need to do is rinse them off, slice them in half, remove the pit, and then place your plums on the dehydrator. We place them flesh side down or skin side up, and you're really gonna pack that dehydrator. You don't need to worry about any space being left in between the fruit, but you don't want them to overlap.

When I make prunes, I fill up as many trays as I can, so use as much fruit as you have available and as many trays as you have available. I have two dehydrators. One is an older one, and I use those trays they stack on my newer one, so sometimes I'll stack up to eight or 10 trays on my dehydrator, and I just keep filling them until I don't have any more.

There's no need to spray your trays before you add that fruit. And you don't have to put anything on your fruit to preserve them. They're gonna be perfect just the way they are. Once your trays are loaded, you're going to turn on your dehydrator. I set mine at 145 degrees, and then you just let it do its job.

Now this can take anywhere from 10 to 18 hours for the fruit to dry. That's a really long time. It's okay to leave that fruit. If you need to leave for a long time, like overnight or you're, you need to leave the house for a while and you don't feel comfortable leaving that on, or you think that you're getting close to being the fruit being dried, it's okay to unplug that for a few hours and then just start it up again.

When you are home and have time to attend to your fruit, it really doesn't need much. After about six hours, I peek in there to check and see how everything's going. About halfway through, I also rotate my trays. I move the ones from the top down to the bottom and just make sure that everything is getting nice and dried.

As it gets closer to being dried, I start to peek in there a little bit more often. I want a fruit that's nice and dry, but pliable and not so it's brittle. When I think I'm there, I can turn my dehydrator off and let the fruit cool and then check it again when it cools. Sometimes you'll find it's just a tad bit drier than when it was still on the dehydrator.

If it's dried to your liking, then take everything off and put them in a large zip top bag or a large jar. You're gonna condition that fruit now. So what that means is some of those pieces are gonna be a little bit drier than others, and when it's conditioning, it's sort of leveling out the moisture level on all those different pieces.

So every day just shake or rotate that fruit around until it has leveled out. It takes about one to two days for this conditioning to occur. If you notice moisture on the inside of your jar or on the inside of the bag, your fruit is not dried enough, put it back on the dehydrator and let it dry for another couple of hours.

After my fruit has been conditioned, I take out what I think is enough for me to eat for about a month. Then I put those in a jar on my counter, it has a lid on it, and I distort those right there. Every day I can just grab one or two of the prunes out and nibble on those, the extra ones I put into a vacuum seal bag and store in my.

By doing this, it just extends the life of those prunes. Nothing's going to happen to them when they're in the freezer, and then I pull them out when I'm ready for a new bag and I let those sit on my counter for about a month while I eat them up. Dried prunes are a delicious and nutritious snack. If you have access to those Italian plums, you really wanna give this a try.

It's a great, easy way to preserve your pluma. After you make these, I want you to let me know did you like them? I bet you will.

We'll see you again next week in the pantry. Thanks everyone. Thanks for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week for more episodes of Preserving the Pantry.

More Podcast

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    Episode 39 Strawberry Jam
  • Frozen rhubarb in a pile.
    Episode 38 Preserving Rhubarb
  • A glass canning jar filled with red jam.
    Episode 37 Making Rhubarb Jam
  • Peach cobbler with a scoop of ice cream.
    Episode 36 Using Frozen Peaches
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I'm Kathy, a busy working mom who loves to cook from scratch, grow a garden, and raise farm animals. Take a look around and find all my recipes, gardening tips, and country living antics.

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The author holding a chicken.

I'm Kathy, a busy working mom who loves to cook from scratch, grow a garden, and raise farm animals. Take a look around and find all my recipes, gardening tips, and country living antics.

More about me →

Popular Recipes

  • A single muffin topped with a crumbly topping on a plate.
    Oatmeal Banana Muffins
  • Stacks of crispy golden fish on a white plate with a blue rim.
    Beer Battered Fish
  • Crispy fish fillets topped with lemon wedges.
    Pan Fried Walleye
  • A plate with baked pasta with cheese and tomatoes.
    Chicken Pasta Bake

Chicken Dinners

  • Strips of chicken, peppers and onions in a baked casserole.
    Chicken Fajita Casserole
  • Crispy chicken thighs on a white plate.
    Cast Iron Chicken Thighs
  • A chicken thigh with a sauce on a plate with rice and peas.
    Apricot Chicken
  • A plate filled with chicken legs covered in barbecue sauce.
    Baked BBQ Chicken Legs
  • Grilled chicken thighs on a white plate.
    Italian Dressing Chicken
  • A golden chicken thigh on a white plate with roasted potatoes and green beans.
    Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner

Featured In...

Beyond the Chicken Coop recipes have been featured in many different sites.

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Beyond the Chicken Coop recipes have been featured in many different sites.

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